Transport on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for congenital diaphragmatic hernia: A unique center experience

Please get me out of here: The difficult decision making in fit-to-fly assessments for international fixed-wing air ambulance operations

INTRODUCTION

With international travel for leisure and business almost back to pre-pandemic levels, demand for repatriation due to illness and injury abroad is increasing [1,2]. In any repatriation, there is considerable pressure on all involved to organize a rapid transport back home. Delay in such action may be perceived by the patient, relatives, and the public as an attempt by the underwriter to hold off on an expensive air ambulance mission [3-5].

METHODS

Review of the available literature and analysis of assistance and air ambulance Companies' infrastructure and processes to identify risk and benefit of executing or delaying aeromedical transport for international travellers.

KEY FINDINGS

While patients of almost any severity can be safely transported over great distances in modern air ambulance aircraft, immediate transport is not always in the patient's best interest. Each call for assistance requires a complex and dynamic risk-benefit analysis with multiple stakeholders involved to achieve an optimized outcome. Opportunities for risk mitigation within the assistance team include active case management with clearly assigned ownership, as well as medical and logistical experience with knowledge on local treatment opportunities and limitations. On the air ambulance side, modern equipment, experience, standards and procedures as well as accreditation can reduce risk.

CONCLUSIONS

Each patient evaluation remains a highly individual risk-benefit assessment. Optimal outcomes require a clear understanding of responsibilities, flawless communication and significant expertise among the key decision-makers. Negative outcomes are mostly associated with insufficient information, communication, inadequate experience or a lack of ownership/assigned responsibility.

Geographic Distance to Extracorporeal Life Support Centers for Pediatric Patients Within the Continental United States

OBJECTIVES

Distance to subspecialty surgical care is a known impediment to the delivery of high-quality healthcare. Extracorporeal life support is of benefit to pediatric patients with specific medical conditions. Despite a continued increase in the number of extracorporeal life support centers, not all children have equal access to extracorporeal life support due to geographic constraints, creating a potential disparity in healthcare. We attempted to better define the variation in geographic proximity to extracorporeal life support centers for pediatric patients using the U.S. Decennial Census.

DESIGN

A publicly available listing of voluntarily reporting extracorporeal life support centers in 2019 and the 2010 Decennial Census were used to calculate straight-line distances between extracorporeal life support zip code centroids and census block centroids. Disparities in distance to care associated with urbanization were analyzed.

SETTING

United States.

PATIENTS

None.

INTERVENTIONS

Large database review.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

There were 136 centers providing pediatric extracorporeal life support in 2019. The distribution varied by state with Texas, California, and Florida having the most centers. Over 16 million children (23% of the pediatric population) live greater than 60 miles from an extracorporeal life support center. Significant disparity exists between urban and rural locations with over 47% of children in a rural setting living greater than 60 miles from an extracorporeal life support center compared with 17% of children living in an urban setting.

CONCLUSIONS

Disparities in proximity to extracorporeal life support centers were present and persistent across states. Children in rural areas have less access to extracorporeal life support centers based upon geographic distance alone. These findings may affect practice patterns and treatment decisions and are important to the development of regionalization strategies to ensure all children have subspecialty surgical care available to them, including extracorporeal life support.

New approaches to congenital diaphragmatic hernia

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a structural birth defect that results in significant neonatal morbidity and mortality. CDH occurs in 2-4 per 10 000 pregnancies, and despite meaningful advances in neonatal intensive care, the mortality rate in infants with isolated CDH is still 25-30%. In this review, we will present data on the molecular underpinnings of pathological lung development in CDH, prenatal diagnosis, and prognostication in CDH cases, existing fetal therapy modalities, and future directions.

RECENT FINDINGS

Developments in the prenatal assessment and in-utero therapy of pregnancies complicated by congenital diaphragmatic hernia are rapidly evolving. Although ultrasound has been the mainstay of prenatal diagnosis, fetal MRI appears to be an increasingly important modality for severity classification. While fetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion (FETO) may have a role in the prenatal management of severe CDH cases, it is possible that future therapeutic paradigms will incorporate adjunct medical interventions with either stem cells or sildenafil in order to address the vascular effects of CDH on the developing lung.

SUMMARY

Both animal and human data have shown that the pathophysiological underpinnings of CDH are multifactorial, and it appears that future prenatal assessments and therapies will likely be as well.

Mobile Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation

To review our experience with mobile extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Mobile ECMO team included: ECMO-trained surgeon and intensivist, specialist nurse, and perfusionist. Patients were cannulated for venous-arterial (V-A) or venous-venous (V-V) ECMO, depending on clinical indication. Mobile transfers were carried out utilizing a Levitronics Centrimag centrifugal pump and Hico Variotherm 555 heater cooler. From October 2009 to May 2019, 571 patients, 185 (32%) neonates, 95 (17%) pediatric, and 291 (51%) adults, underwent mobile ECMO transfer. Four hundred fifty-three (79%) transfers were completed by road, 76 (13%) by air, and 42 (8%) by road/air combination. Road was the travel mode of choice for journeys with expected duration up to 3 hours one way. Nevertheless, road transfers up to 6 hours duration were performed safely. Average duration of mobile ECMO transfer was 5.5 hours (2-18 hours). Two patients died before arrival of mobile ECMO team, four patients were cannulated during cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, and one of them died of uncontrollable hemorrhage in the right hemithorax. One patient had cardiac arrest after V-V cannulation and required conversion to V-A. Mobile ECMO is safe and reliable to transfer the sickest of patients. Fully trained team with all equipment and disposables is indispensable for reliable mobile ECMO service.

The role of ECMO in the management of congenital diaphragmatic hernia

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is the most common indication for extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for neonatal respiratory failure. CDH management is evolving with advanced prenatal diagnostic imaging modalities. The risk profiles of infants receiving ECMO for CDH are shifting towards higher risk. Many clinicians are developing and following clinical practice guidelines to standardize and optimize the care of CDH neonates. Despite these efforts, there are significant differences in the practice patterns among ECMO centers as to how and when they choose to initiate ECMO for CDH, when they believe repair is safe, as well as many other nuances that are based on center experience or style. The purpose of this report is to summarize our current understanding of the new and recent developments regarding management of infants with CDH managed with ECMO.

Interhospital Transport on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation of Neonates-Perspective for the Future

In recent years the number of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) cases in neonates has been relatively constant. Future expansion lays in new indications for treatment. Regionalization to high-volume ECMO centers allows for optimal utilization of resources, reduction in costs, morbidity, and mortality. Mobile ECMO services available "24-7" are needed to provide effective logistics and reliable infrastructure for patient safety. ECMO transports are usually high-risk and complex. To reduce complications during ECMO transport communication using time-out, checklists, and ECMO A-B-C are paramount in any size mobile program. Team members' education, clinical training, and experience are important. For continuing education, regular wet-lab training, and simulation practices in teams increase performance and confidence. In the future the artificial placenta for the extremely premature infant (23-28 gestational weeks) will be introduced. This will enforce the development and adaptation of ECMO devices and materials for increased biocompatibility to manage the high-risk prem-ECMO (28-34 weeks) patients. These methods will likely first be introduced at a few high-volume neonatal ECMO centers. The ECMO team brings bedside competence for assessment, cannulation, and commencement of therapy, followed by a safe transport to an experienced ECMO center. How transport algorithms for the artificial placentae will affect mobile ECMO is unclear. ECMO transport services in the newborn should firstly be an out-reach service led and provided by ELSO member centers that continuously report transport data to an expansion of the ELSO Registry to include transport quality follow-up and research. For future development and improvement follow-up and sharing of data are important.